


Missing the Mark

by dasfreefree



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Chaptered, F/M, Fluff, Mutual Pining, NSFW tags will be added when i decide if i want to get NSFW with this one, Reader-Insert, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-09-17
Packaged: 2018-12-06 00:45:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11589537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dasfreefree/pseuds/dasfreefree
Summary: Your friends are sick of the excuses. There aren't rules or boundaries keeping you and Akiteru from getting together, unless you count Cupid missing his mark consistently for the past four years. Now that you're both working adults, there are no more excuses. You can only go on so many bad blind dates. Akiteru can only keep pretending that work and volleyball are his priorities now. And unless your friends do it for you, it's only a matter of of who makes the first move. Let's just hope that the two of you have better aim than Cupid. (Akiteru/You)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is well-overdue, but I finally have the 1000 followers celebration fic I promised for hitting that milestone on my imagines blog. For those unaware, I wanted to write one of my multi-part fic ideas and gave followers the chance to choose which one. It was close, but Akiteru won that poll! And this whole fic is mutual-pining and romcom-ish, which I'm a sucker for. 
> 
> I mentioned it in the tags, but I haven't decided if I want to do smut with this one. I probably will, though, so rating will change and tags will be added accordingly.

“Speak of the devil.”

Akiteru turns to find you standing in the doorway, scanning over the room. As you enter the bar, your eyes immediately lock onto your usual booth. You hold your arms out at your side with a slight shrug and intentionally sheepish smile, as if to suggest that you had made some sort of childish mistake.

“Nine-thirty PM. A new record,” your mutual friend Yuiko announces with a glance at her watch.

Akiteru offers you a wave as you make your way over to your friends. Even at the sight of you wearing that simple dress and blazer, he didn’t let his smile falter. He can't find it in him to be _too_ jealous of the fact that you look so nice for some other guy; the fact that it's not even ten yet and you're already back from your date did not bode well for the other man.

But he's still jealous.

You take the seat across from him, next to Yuiko, and let out an exasperated sigh.

“I’m guessing it didn’t go too well,” he muses, lips hovering just above his mug of beer. He feels guilty for smirking about this and hopes the drink hides it well enough.

“It’s technically still going on,” you reply, eyes narrowing in thought. Akiteru lowers his mug and even Yuiko raises an eyebrow at your words.

“You didn’t,” she says. You turn toward her and nod your head. “Restroom window?”

“Actually, I came up with an easier escape plan.” You pop open the clutch in your hand and pull out a cigarette carton. When both of your friends give you a questioning look—you don't smoke as far as they're aware—you pull back the lid, revealing that there's nothing inside. “Assuming he doesn’t want to join you, it’s a lot easier than trying to climb out the bathroom window when you have a dress and heels on. I lucked out with him having asthma and not wanting to join me just to talk.”

Yuiko shakes her head in disbelief. “Genius, (F/N). I wish I had thought of it myself.”

Akiteru feels a proud smile tugging at his lips now: you've always been clever and you saved his ass on many occasions with your resourcefulness. Like when one of his button-downs got caught on a chair at the office and ripped when he first started interning. He didn't have any important presentations or meetings at that point, but he wasn't about to be branded as the sloppy-looking intern. There wasn't enough time for him to head back to his dorm and change during his lunch break. After letting you know during your regular texts, you offered to meet him for lunch and managed to mend it with nothing but bobby pins to hold him over for the rest of the day.

"We're down a person," you say, only now noticing that your usual tetrad is only three at the moment. "Where's your better half?"

“Kyo’s babysitting for the brother and sister-in-law. But they needed some quality uncle-nephew time, so I opted this one out.”

“Or, I think someone just didn’t want to have to sit through another kids’ movie,” Akiteru says with a sly smile.

She opens her mouth to retort but is cut off when her phone vibrates on the table, her fiancé’s name and a silly picture of him displayed across the screen. "I'll be back in a few."

You give Akiteru a shrug when Yuiko's scoots out the other side of the booth and answers her phone. 

“I mean, if I had to see another one of those anthropomorphized yellow breath mints, I’d lose my mind too. You can’t really fault her,” you explain while failing to fight back a laugh.

Akiteru laughs along with you. One of his more recent favorite pastimes is teasing Yuiko about her disdain for those mascots, mostly because you’d team up with him to get a rise out of her. She’s a good sport for the most part.

But he really needs to hear about your date. Thinking of ways to annoy your friend could come later. “Alright, so how bad was this guy really?”

You huff and rest your elbows on the table, cradling your chin on laced fingers. “To be honest, the first twenty minutes weren’t that bad, but it didn't take long for him to make every single topic of conversation about himself. At one point, he tried to mansplain to how to have a conversation. It’s like, I’d love to do this thing I already know how to do, but you haven’t asked me a single question about my life.”

He knows he should probably feel bad that your date didn’t go well, but it offers him relief more than anything. Playing along, Akiteru lets out a wry laugh and rolls his eyes. “How did you meet this guy again?”

“Blind date set up by a work colleague. Given that I’m at a zero-to-five when it comes to successful blind dates, I think it’s time to draw my line in sand.” You hold your breath for a moment before the next words come out. “No more randos.”

For the past four or so years, you’ve been avoiding the subject by insisted that Akiteru didn’t feel the same way about you that you felt about him. Plenty of friends could be as close and flirty as you two were without it meaning something besides friendship. But maybe, just maybe, this could serve as a subtle hint for him that he was more than a possibility for you.

It’s not the alcohol that warms him up when you make this declaration. He doesn’t know how many other men you know, but he knows that he at least falls somewhere on the diagram of “People (F/N) Will Date” and “People (F/N) Knows.” It’s only a matter of where now, and he can only hope it’s smack in the center, on the overlap.

“That sounds like a good plan,” he says. He lifts up his beer in a pseudo-toast. “To no more random dates.” He goes to clink his drink to yours, only to realize you haven’t gotten one yet. You hold up a finger and take Yuiko’s to use. The both you drink, and you can practically hear her whine about her drink being less full when she comes back. You’ll get her another one later.

“How’s the team doing?”

Akiteru’s face practically lights up when you ask. It’s hard not to smile at him; he’s almost like a little kid being asked about his favorite TV show.

“Great! We haven’t had an official match this season yet, but I can tell we’re going to be in good shape,” he explains. “We have a practice game tomorrow. You should come. If you’re not busy, that is.”

“Well, it certainly beats my original plan of pretending to clean my apartment while binge-watching old sitcoms. Not to mention I haven’t seen you play in a while.”

The last time you saw him play was in your last year of college, and you’d be lying if you said that getting swept up in cheering and having your friends there with you distracted you from getting hot and bothered watching him. Knowing that Yuiko and Kyo would be busy with their nephew at the zoo tomorrow meant that you were on your own this time.

Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad. It’s been a long time since just two of you did something together anyway.

Akiteru gives you the details for you to note on your phone. All the while, you continue to sip on Yuiko’s drink, knowing that she’ll get over it when you let her know your plans for tomorrow.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I meant to update this on a more weekly basis, but clearly that didn’t happen… I'm also sorry about how painfully heteronormative this whole thing is.
> 
> There's probably 2 or 3 more chapters left in this.

Around two in the afternoon, you arrive for Akiteru’s practice game. You get there just before they start their warm-ups and make your way to the stands to join the other spectators. There aren’t many people at all, but you can’t help but notice a small group of women seated nearby each other. They’re probably a little bit older than you considering that a few of them are accompanied by small children. They seem to be chatting pleasantly before one of them lays on eyes you.

She smiles and motions for you to come over. You look around to make sure she absolutely is referring to you. Realizing there’s no one else she could gesture to, you approach them and take a seat on the fringes of their group.

“Well, it would appear that we have a new member. Welcome to the Kaji Wild Dogs WAGs Club.” She jerks her head in the direction of the court. “Which one is yours?”

You stare dumfounded at her. They all seem genuinely curious for your response--and you’d love to give an answer--but most of that last statement went over your head.

“"Uh, gesundheit?” you ask. She looks down at the child in her lap as if this is all standard procedure.

“WAGs: Wives and Girlfriends of the players. Like with soccer players. A pretty, young thing like you usually only comes to one of these games if her boyfriend is playing.”

“Um, I’m not anyone’s… WAG. I’m just here to see my friend play.” You point down at the court, hoping your finger guides her eyesight towards Akiteru. “Tsukishima. The blonde one.”

As if your words could be heard all the way down on the court, Akiteru looks in your direction. He smiles at you and gives you a wave, which you readily return.

She blinks once and clicks her tongue. “Quite a handsome guy, huh?”

In your head, you can practically hear her continuing her line of inquiry: “that handsome and _not_ dating him? What’s the problem?” You’ve known this lady for a grand total of five minutes and she’s already being a nosy aunt. One thing’s for certain, you aren’t about to go on about your unrequited feelings for Akiteru. You don’t even know her or anyone else’s name. In fact, they don’t know your name either.

You decide to evade her question and introduce yourself, and most of the other ladies do the same, leading you to turn the conversation on her.

“So which one is yours?”

On the court, you hear a loud cheer. One of Akiteru’s teammates is celebrating… something. Considering that it’s still only warm-ups, you’re not entirely sure what it could be. The woman next to you practically deadpans in that way only a woman who knows her man is ridiculous can.

“The old and noisy one.”

You nod, a little knowingly and a little smugly.

The teams go through their normal formalities before the match starts. It doesn’t feel all too different from the times you’d go to watch Akiteru play when the two of you were in college. Early on in your friendship with him and in the early stages of your crush, you’d often lament to Yuiko how unfair it was that he looked so hot on the court. Admittedly, you didn’t know all too much about volleyball so you didn’t have a whole lot else to grasp on to while watching. That and being a freshman in your first semester of college made you oddly lovesick.

Even five years later, your younger self knew what she was saying. If anything, you’d say Akiteru’s the type who gets finer with age. But despite the low stakes of this practice match, something about this seems more serious than usual.

It’s not Akiteru; he seems to be on his game more than ever today. Or at least after not seeing him play for a while, it does. When he smiles, it makes you ache inside for whatever reason. You remember this feeling. One time when you were at school, the volleyball club threw a party. The house was packed and for a decent part of the night you couldn’t find him, and when you did, another girl threw her arms around him and went in for a kiss. Unnoticed by both, you turned and left. Crying most of the walk back to your apartment before throwing up in front of a stranger’s house. Yuiko opted out of the party that night with a cold, but still stayed up with you while you cried it out. When you saw Akiteru a few days later and he seemed genuinely upset he didn’t see you there. Even worse, there was never any mention of this mysterious hookup of his ever again. At one point, you wondered if you made her up to compensate for your insecurities. If you had been able to find him ten seconds earlier, maybe it would have been you kissing him instead.

You're jolted from this memory when the women with you all cheer. Your new nosy aunt elbows you gently.

“Hey, your boyfriend just scored a great one!”

It’s the WAGs. It’s clear that their presence reminds you that you’ll probably never be a part of them.

* * *

 

At the end of the third set, Akiteru feels great. The Wild Dogs are at match point, and he knows that his being on his game today contributed to that. And that his being on his game was thanks to knowing you were watching him from the stands. In college, he never said it aloud, but you were his good luck charm, and it would seem that hasn't changed. Even though it's just a practice match, he's on top of the world right now. The only way he could get higher is if he scores the winning point.

He likes to think that he'll get his act together soon, so that he can get higher by scoring the winning point _and_ getting a celebratory kiss from you. For now, he settles for a clean spike leading to the final whistle.  Hearing you shout, "You did the damn thing!"--what you'd shout to him in college--from the stands when they thank the spectators works well enough too.

"Stay until after cool-down?" Akiteru calls up to you. That was already part of your plan for the day, but you give him a thumbs up before he heads off.

You wait in the hallways for him, seated on a cushioned bench and texting Yuiko about the match. He emerges from the smaller gymnasium after a while, and you stand offering him a bright smile.

"You did the damn thing, Tsukishima!" you say again, giving a playful punch to his shoulder. He grins as well. “I know it’s been a while, but it seems like you’re in top form.”

Akiteru heard the same phrase almost verbatim from most of his teammates today, but hearing it from you made him swell with immense pride. It’s the first time in a long time he’s been this confident. If you compliment him further, he might burst.

“Yeah, I just felt really on my game today. I’m glad you were here to see it. I need backup for when I tell Kyo and Yuiko and they don’t believe me.”

“They’re not going to believe me either then. They’ll just accuse us of a conspiracy.”

And then Yuiko will probably text you under the table about how obvious you’re being and how you two should fuck already. _It’s been years_.

And then Kyo will probably wait until you and his fiancée go to the bathroom to tell Akiteru how obvious he’s being and how he should ask you out already. _It’s been years_.

It’s been years. The thought permeates through Akiteru’s confidence. No, perhaps, it emboldens it. Either way, “it’s been years” is starting to become tired and cliché to him. He swallows hard—you don’t notice it—and smiles again, a little softer.

"I need to go home and shower first, but are you hungry? Let's get dinner,” he says, voice unwavering but nerves suddenly sending his stomach into flips.

His offer catches you off-guard for a beat. Your stomach flutters in a fleeting moment before remembering how normal it is for the two of you to do something without your other friends around.

"Yeah, it's been a while since just the two of us hung out."

"No. I don't mean just the two of us hanging out.” His words almost cut yours off, following them instantaneously. Your mouth hangs open a little but you’ve forgotten how to breath. The playful atmosphere is gone, suddenly much more tense and maybe awkward, a first in a long time since your first meeting in college. Akiteru looks you straight in the eyes. It’s only a very brief moment that passes, but it feels like years (well, it truly has been) before he finally says, “I mean as a date."


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What’s worse than a cliffhanger? How about a flashback chapter right after the cliffhanger? And one that feels like a Degrassi-level teen drama? I’m so sorry (okay, not really).

"She's really cute, right?"

"Yeah..."

"I don't know what it is about girls who're so animated when they talk, but it makes them about a hundred times cuter."

"Yeah... wait, huh?"

Akiteru blinks. It's not that he disagrees with Kyo's statement, but something is amiss. He hadn't taken his eyes off you since he scanned over the rest of the people in the dorm lounge. In that time, he hasn't seen your lips move once except to laugh at whatever the person next to you was saying. He turns back to his roommate to set the record straight. "Who are you talking about?"

"That girl talking right now. In the blue tank top. She's really cute, right? I think she lives on our floor too."

"Oh."

He had become so enraptured by the sight of you that he failed to acknowledge the two other girls you were sitting with. You hadn’t said a word or even looked his way, but your smile and laugh alone put him in a trance. Someone like that doesn’t come around every often.

"Who did you think I was talking about?" Kyo asks.

"The girl on her right," Akiteru answers somewhat sheepishly. It feels funny to say it aloud but it makes his heart skip a beat.

“Eh, she’s cute, but not really my type,” Kyo dismisses with a shrug. “I haven’t known you long enough to figure out what yours is, but if you think she’s it ,then go for it.” Akiteru doesn’t really listen all that much after that. Kyo starts complaining about something on one of his class’s syllabi. It’s only their second day at college and classes haven’t started yet to be too worried.

So Akiteru decides he doesn’t have to start worrying about dating _yet_. He still glances your way every so often as a distraction from his pre-class reading.

That decision only lasts a few hours when you quite literally walk into his life, or really his room. He and Kyo are still trying to figure out the best TV arrangement for their room when Yuiko enters with you right behind her. The boys’ door is open as part of the floor’s “Open Door Policy” to encourage everyone to socialize more when they don’t want privacy.

“We’re getting dinner. Do you guys want to join us?” she asks as if she’s known the two of them for years already. The two boys look towards each other before looking back to the two of you and nodding. The leave the TV as is and the four of you head to the nearest dining hall.

“I told you it would be that easy,” you say to Yuiko. You turn to the boys now. “We live on the other side of the floor, so we’re trying to meet some people outside of our direct neighbors. I’m (Y/N), by the way.”

_You live on the same floor as him_. Akiteru introduces himself to you a little eagerly, but it’s nothing compared to Kyo’s introduction. It’s so painful that Yuiko nearly laughs herself into a coughing fit. As her friend since high school, you know more than well that this is the kind of guy she’ll easily fall for. On the walk to dinner, you let the two of them walk ahead and chat while you hang behind with Akiteru. Well, the notion _seems_ like a noble one. Really, you want to get to know him one-on-one a little bit—you aren’t the only one on the floor who’s noticed how cute he is—and it’s all very convenient that your friend has paired off with his roommate.

“So what’s your thing, Tsukishima?” you ask.

“My thing?”

“Well, you already told us what you’re studying. What do you do in your spare time?”

He’s not used to someone being so direct and casual with him five minutes after introducing himself, but he already likes that about you. A little playful, he hums in thought.

“Guess.”

“Hmm, basketball?”

“Nope. It’s volleyball.”

“Hey, I was close with the tall people sports!”

Akiteru laughs at this and you do as well. From there on out, your conversations run smoothly. That awkward air around the two of you seems to disappear. He pinpoints this as the moment he started falling for you.

~*~

“The volleyball team is having a party tonight. You should come.”

It’s late in your second year of college when Akiteru suggests this. Class and practice have been keeping him more than busy and the only time he gets to hang out with you and only you is during the one day a week where your lunch hours overlap.

“Ah, Yuiko’s got a nasty cold so I doubt I’ll have my partner in crime, though,” you say.

“You won’t have to babysit her, though. You can finally cut loose a little.”

That much is true. The girl knows how to knock them back fast to get into having fun from the get-go, but she requires supervision when that happens. Kyo’s not much help in that department, so that leaves you as the responsible one.

You nod in thought before answering. “Okay, I’ll bite. I could use a night out.”

Except you forgot how popular these volleyball parties are. The place is packed: you can barely make it past the front door before you’re chiming, “’Scuse me, sorry” like a broken record. While you get a drink and chat with some acquaintances and classmates, you keep an eye out for Akiteru. It’s hard to spot him among the crowd and in this bad lighting, so you finish the drink you have and try again. While you scan the basement for any sign of him, your hand mindlessly pats your pocket.

Right. Duh. You can text him.

He beat you to the punch on that one. On your phone screen is a text from him about a half an hour ago, wondering where you are. Cup still in one hand, you try to type out your response, but find that one-handed typing and other partiers trying to get by you don’t go well. You’re better off just trying to find him on your own at this point. So you get another drink and find one of his teammates to ask him if they know where Akiteru is.

“I think he just went out back.”

Perfect. You make your way through the crowd and shuffle back up the stairs, sipping your drink all the while. It takes a few minutes before you’re finally back upstairs and maneuvering to the back of the house. _Finally_ , there’s less of a crowd where you are. Now you’re at the door leading to the backyard and you open it with a sense of relief. It feels nice to be able to breath for once this evening.

And then you stop at the sight before you. You’ve only just opened the door, haven’t even taken a step out yet. Two people stand before you, and as you open the one throws themselves at the other for a sloppy kiss. A girl is throwing herself at a guy and that guy is very much your friend and unrequited crush Tsukishima Akiteru.

A beat barely passes before you turn around. The world doesn’t slow down yet. No, it’s more like when you accidentally see a gross picture online and try to scroll past is as quick as possible. It’s after you’ve turned around and brought your drink to your lips to guzzle whatever’s left in that cup that you realize how painfully slow everything is now. You’re pushing past people without any semblance of politeness now, stumbling over anyone who doesn’t budge.

If there’s music blasting, you can’t hear it. If people are telling you off you can’t hear it. You need to get out now. Go home. Deny everything that’s happened between your arrival and now. The heaviness in the pit of your stomach will remind you otherwise. It sits there on your walk back, occupying your thoughts and putting you into autopilot mode. As you rush home, you feel it sink deeper and grow. Maybe part of that is the alcohol.

Either way, it doesn’t matter because you stop walking for only a moment and spill your guts out onto your neighbor’s lawn.

And it’s only after you spit out that disgusting aftertaste that you start crying. 

~*~

Maybe you didn’t show up after all. You’re not one to leave Akiteru hanging like that, and he wonders why you wouldn’t answer any of his texts or try to find him that night. He kept an eye out for you the entire time too just in case—save for that strange hour or so when a girl from his statistics class chatted him up and tried to kiss him—but he never could find you. Over a text the morning after, he asks you what happened.

“Yuiko’s cold took a bad turn that night and I didn’t want to leave her alone. Sorry!”

(It was an excuse you would take to the grave, but it was her suggestion anyway. And with Kyo not around that weekend, it made plenty of sense that duties would fall on you.)

Later in the week, he notices how quiet you’ve become when you’re together at lunch. You don’t look at him much either, instead staring at your food and poking it around the plate in front of you.

“Hey, what’s bugging you?” he asks. There’s a softness to his tone that contrasts too heavily against the boisterous dining hall.

You look up at him, finally. There’s a fire in your eyes, but it’s dull and missing the warmth that’s so familiar to him. Your mouth hangs open as if you’re gearing up for a long rant, but you shrink back down.

“Nothing for you to worry about, okay? I’ve just got some personal stuff to sort through,” you answer.

He’s not buying it. You tell him _everything_ , even if it’s in vague terms you tell him. And even the times you didn’t say anything, you’d come to him first even if you just needed someone to hold you while you cried.

“I don’t believe it,” Akiteru says.

“I don’t feel like talking about it right now. And definitely not right here.”

“Then let’s go somewhere else.”

“No.” You almost cut him off with this one word, and this one word alone immediately thickens the tension between you. You sigh heavily, grab your bag, and rise. “I’m going to put myself in time out so I don’t blow up on you and make things worse.”

You take the tray with you before leaving.

“(Y/N), I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have pushed you.”

It’s not much, but it relieves some of your worry about all of this.

~*~

The next week leaves you confused. You’d like to think because there’s no sign or word of this mystery girl that Akiteru isn’t with her at all. But you also know that if he’s kissing other girls in general, then he really isn’t into you like that. You try to return to the status quo, but all the flirtatious teasing, the gentle touches here and there dissipate when you distance yourself from him. Much to your dismay, _this_ becomes the new status quo.

Time may heal all wounds or break down walls you put up, but after three years, the barrier is maybe only halfway broken. Sometimes, you think maybe it’ll crumble down now, like when he asked you the other night to come watch him play volleyball again. But watching him play only reminded you of its presence. Standing in this hallway with him and just talking like two friends would reminds you that it’s still there.

"No. I don't mean us just the two of us hanging out. I mean as a date."

After three years, Tsukishima Akiteru takes a sledgehammer to the wall.


End file.
